Posted by Brian Rapoza on March 26, 2017 at 02:08:51
Eleven birders joined me for today's birding trip in Collier County. The trip began and ended at the Oasis Visitor Center in Big Cypress National Preserve. Due to lingering smoke from an ongoing brush fire in Big Cypress, we skipped our first planned stop, at Kirby Storter Boardwalk, and continued west to Big Cypress Bend Boardwalk in Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park. Other birding stops included the Marsh Trail at Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Eagle Lakes Community Park in Naples, Picayune Strand State Forest and Tiger Tail Beach on Marco Island. By the end of the day, we had tallied nearly 80 species. Here's the list: Mottled Duck Blue-winged Teal Northern Shoveler Red-breasted Merganser Northern Gannet Double-crested Cormorant Anhinga Brown Pelican Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Little Blue Heron Tricolored Heron Reddish Egret Cattle Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron White Ibis Glossy Ibis Roseate Spoonbill Wood Stork Black Vulture Turkey Vulture Osprey Red-shouldered Hawk American Kestrel Common Gallinule Black-necked Stilt Black-bellied Plover Wilson's Plover Semipalmated Plover Greater Yellowlegs Willet Lesser Yellowlegs Ruddy Turnstone Stilt Sandpiper (10,000 Islands NWR) Sanderling Dunlin Least Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher Laughing Gull Ring-billed Gull Royal Tern Black Skimmer (Eagle Lakes Park) Eurasian Collared-Dove Common Ground Dove Mourning Dove Burrowing Owl Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Great Crested Flycatcher Loggerhead Shrike White-eyed Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow Purple Martin Tufted Titmouse Brown-headed Nuthatch (Picayune Strand) Carolina Wren Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Eastern Bluebird (Picayune Strand) Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird European Starling Northern Parula Yellow-rumped Warbler Prairie Warbler Palm Warbler Black-and-white Warbler Common Yellowthroat Savannah Sparrow Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle Boat-tailed Grackle